Smart lockdown is the best option for poor countries: PM

Prime Minister Imran Khan has rejected the proposal of complete lockdown in Lahore and said that if the people are not careful and follow the SOPs, the country will have to suffer.

Talking to media in Lahore, PM Imran Khan said that there was an idea that we should lock down Lahore again, so I want to make it clear that lockdown means shutting down the entire economy to stop the spread of the virus, he added.

“I have the impression from the beginning that if our country were a small country like Singapore with a population of 5 million, like Taiwan or New Zealand with a population of 3 million, then it would be very easy to lock down the country,” he said. There are rich countries with an annual income of 30, 50 thousand dollars, they don’t have any problem with closing them.

“I have been saying since day one that a country like ours has a population of 220 million, of which 25 per cent are living below the poverty line,” he said.

“India, Bangladesh and we have different situations. When we lock down and economic activities are disrupted, the whole burden falls on the working class and they become unemployed,” he said.

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He said that smart lockdown is the only option for the country like us so that the wheel of the economy would run and the poor would not be burdened and at the same time the spread of Coronavirus would be stopped.

The Prime Minister said that it was a difficult task, running on both sides was never an easy task.

Addressing the people, the premier said that while the government is giving you the opportunity to open a business, be careful at the same time so that there will be less pressure on the hospitals and we will be able to treat more people in the hospitals.

Imran Khan said we will go for a smart lockdown, first trace the hotspots and close these places and maybe we will need more volunteers to stop the spread of the pandemic.

“We have decided that the management and volunteers will work together to ensure the implementation on the SOPs,” he said.

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